Democrats celebrate big win in Madison County races

Wampsville, NY -- Support for Democratic candidates could be more common as the party gains voters in rural Madison County. Democrats took several key races Tuesday night, with big wins in the Oneida mayoral and county sheriff race.

The county’s nearly 40,000 registered voters break down to 16,563 Republicans and 11,161 Democrats, Board of Elections officials reported Wednesday. The balance either were registered with a different party or no party at all.

But the margins used to be as much as about 2-1 before a recent shift. The county’s Democratic party picked up nearly 600 voters between 2004 and 2008, while the GOP lost more than 1,100, elections records show.

Margins were close in the race for the 23rd Congressional District seat, where Conservative Douglas Hoffman took 47 percent of the vote, followed by Democrat Bill Owens with 45 percent. Republican Dede Scozzafava, who dropped out of the campaign last weekend, pulled in about 6.6 percent.

Turnout tops 40 percent

Countywide, more than 40 percent of all registered voters, or 16,696 voters, cast ballots in the contested sheriff’s race. In the city of Oneida, nearly 46 percent of registered voters went to the polls to weigh in on contested mayoral and council races. Of 6,070 registered voters, 2,765 cast ballots in the mayoral race.

The result was a complete shift in power: former Mayor Leo Matzke, a Democrat, retook his seat from Republican incumbent Peter Hedglon, and the Democrats picked up two seats on the Common Council with wins by Michael Grass and Michael Kaiser. They topped Republicans Robert Brown and Marcia Rafte.

It was nearly a complete reversal of the 2007 election, when Democrats lost their majority on the council as well as the mayor’s office. The affiliation of the six-person council will be split in 2010, with three representatives from each party.

Still waiting for results

Official results for races in the town of Stockbridge won’t be available until an impoundment order from the 23rd Congressional race is lifted.

Voters in Stockbridge weighed in on contested races for highway superintendent and town clerk as well as a four-way contest for two seats on the town board. But the results are sealed with the ballots in the Board of Elections headquarters in Wampsville until a court order obtained by the Owens campaign is dropped. It may well be, because Owens Tuesday won the three-way race for the seat long held by John McHugh.

The legal proceedings could also affect other local races in which absentee ballots may play a role. Board of elections officials hope to count the ballots next Tuesday.

A few town board races also are unsettled. In Sullivan, incumbent David Miner leads Kerry Ranger by 94 votes, but one district has yet to be counted in addition to 166 possible absentee ballots townwide.

And in Cazenovia, Democrat Kristi Andersen is ahead of Republican challenger Walt Joncas by a 44-vote margin, with as many as 113 absentee ballots left to count.